There was a brief silence, then the people broke out in hushed conversation.
“Children, to me,” he heard someone say, and a group of guards stepped into the center around the man who had spoken. All around the courtyard, parents hugged and comforted their children before urging them off toward the guards.
“What do we do?” Lex asked Acarius.
“First, I’m checking on Lytira, I don’t care what the healers say. And then–”
A bone-chilling scream from the far ring of houses interrupted his statement. The whole courtyard of people turned toward the sound, everyone suddenly silent.
Then a woman dashed out from between two houses. “Aiacs!” she screamed, her face wild. “They’re in the city!”
The people burst into motion, some of them rushing the children toward the barn while others shifted right in the middle of the courtyard. Wildcats, wolves, large cats of several kinds, some deer, birds of prey nearly as large as the wolves, and some smaller creatures Lex couldn’t name – Sephram shifted in every direction and the courtyard filled with animals and shreds of former clothing. The pride of lions moved into the courtyard, a huge, thick-maned male taking up the center. He moved to the middle of the clearing and let out a roar which shook the buildings. The other animals responded, their primal battle calls filling the air.
Mare darted around the back of the barn straight for Acarius, who swung up onto her back in one smooth motion.
“Now what do we do?” Lex called up to him.
“We fight,” Acarius answered, lowering his hand to Lex.
Lex mounted behind him and glanced around as Acarius turned Mare in a slow circle among the other animals. The Sephram in their animal forms were tense and glancing around, uncertain from which direction the first attack would come.
“Maybe it was a false alarm?” Lex whispered.
“I don’t think so,” Acarius answered, “though I don’t know how an Aiac made it into the camp without the guards seeing it fly in. There are archers covering every inch of the wall, and if something crashed in through the canopy, one of the guards would certainly have heard it.”
Another scream cut the air and one of the deer in the courtyard shifted back into Sephram form, then stumbled. She screamed again, seemingly oblivious she was standing naked in the middle of everyone as she scrambled backwards. All around her others backed away, too, some still in animal form and others shifting back to Sephram. Sephram and animals scattered in all directions, though a few in the center of the chaos seemed to be trying to fight something.
Acarius shoved Mare through the other animals to see what was happening. There in the center of the crowd was an Aiac, pinned to the ground by a dark wolf who held fragments of the Aiac’s bleeding throat in its jowls. On the ground next to it, its face shredded and pinned by a large bobcat, was another Aiac. And another Aiac lay beside that one, its throat crushed in the grip of a hawk nearly the size of a man.
Lex looked around, stunned. Where had they all come from? None of those Aiacs had been there moments ago.
Another scream broke out and Acarius spun Mare toward it. One of the Sephram – a large heron – seemed to be struggling to maintain her form. Her beak shrank some, then shot out long, then faded back toward her face yet again as her wings slid inward to the length of normal arms. She dropped to the ground on hands and knees, then tipped her face up to them, her eyes filled with terror.
Lex gasped. It was the healer who’d come to see them in their guest quarters, the one with herons on her dress.
“Help me,” she pleaded, then her face shifted again, her long braids shrinking up toward her head and morphing into dark, close-cropped hair, her feminine nose widening and lengthening a bit,and the rich color of her skin melting away into a pale, grayish tone. The face blinked up at them, its dark eyes now completely familiar, and gave Lex a grin that made his blood run cold. It was the face of the man Lex had killed, of the man from Dalton, the man who’d taken Amelia, the same face they all had – the face of an Aiac.
The Aiacs weren’t coming into the city – they were appearing from the Sephram within it.
CHAPTER 18
Sephram began shifting into Aiacs around the courtyard.
“What do we do?” Lex asked.
“I don’t know,” Acarius said, looking around. “I don’t know.”
The Sephram who remained turned toward the Aiacs, forced to fight off their former clanspeople. They were holding their own, but more could turn Aiac any moment.
“These people cared for me for years,” Acarius said, looking in shock. “They were my friends. I know once they turn they’re not anymore, but I–”
Lex glanced to Acarius. “What about you?” he said. “You’re half Sephram. Will you–”
“No.” Acarius shook his head. “I can’t shift, remember? I’m safe. Besides” – he pulled a pendant from beneath his tunic, just like the one he’d given Lex – “even if I could, this would prevent it.”
“The pendant?” Lex asked.
“It prevents the shift, among other useful things,” Acarius said, then his eyes went wide. “Oh crap!” He leapt off Mare and raced toward the healers’ house.
Lex had never heard Acarius say oh crap, and the phrase immediately drew up memories of Earth and Steve and Jana. Lex ran after Acarius, wondering if oh crap was a phrase Nigel had taught him, or if Marcus had taught it to Acarius himself.
By the time Lex caught up to him in the house, Acarius was already running back down the stairs. The leather cord he wore around his neck to hold the pendant was missing. “She’ll be safe now,” he said, his eyes falling closed with relief. Then he opened them and took a deep breath. “She looks okay,” he said. “She’s asleep but she’s not as pale. What they’re doing must be working.” He turned to Lex. “Amelia looks fine, too. They’re both still sleeping.”
Lex desperately wanted to see Amelia, but knew it wasn’t the right time – they needed to do something to help the Sephram. “What now?” he asked Acarius.
Acarius glanced outside. “I have no idea. I know we should do something, but– I just– these people were my friends, Lex. I can’t… Wait, where’s Mare?”
Acarius rushed all the way out, glancing around the clearing. Lex followed him, and his heart sank – the clearing was a bloodbath, bodies of fallen Aiacs everywhere, sprinkled with some of fallen Sephram. And still Sephram continued to turn, more Aiacs springing up every few minutes. If it didn’t stop soon, there’d be no Sephram left.
“There!” Acarius pointed, his voice sounding relieved.
Lex followed his hand and saw Mare gallop across the clearing, headed for the barn.
At that moment, the king let out an air-shaking roar in his lion form, then ran for the barn. His pride followed, taking up a guard in front of the barn doors. They’re protecting the children, Lex thought, his heart squeezing. The remaining Sephram followed the king’s lead, joining him against the doors as the Aiacs grouped up and moved toward them. The Aiacs had the Sephram cornered against the barn doors, and as fierce as the king and his people were in their animal forms, they were outnumbered.
Acarius pulled Lex back inside the healers’ house. “They haven’t seen us,” he whispered. “Maybe there’s something we can do.”
“But what?” Lex asked.
“I don’t know,” Acarius said, squeezing his eyes shut. “I don’t know, I don’t know, I don’t know.”
Malleck’s voice boomed outside again. “It would be a shame to keep turning you until there are none of you left; After all, Aiacs are a dime a dozen but each of you have families, lives – it really seems a tragedy. Perhaps you should just surrender.”
“It’s Malleck changing them?”Acarius hissed. “How is he doing that? Only Ardis has the power to create Aiacs.”
He has dark energy, Lex thought, the same as I have, right? Maybe I can do it, too. But he had no idea where to begin even trying, and even
if he could, how would it help? Even if it meant he could control the Aiacs he turned, it would only be taking more Sephram’s lives.
A chorus of screams sliced through the air – high-pitched screams, like those of children. Lex and Acarius raced outside.
The roof of the barn was being lifted off by a horde of airborne wrasseks, gripping it from all directions. The wood holding the roof to the barn creaked and splintered, and the children inside screamed again.
“No,” Acarius moaned. “No, no, no!” He stood in the doorway, clearly wanting to rush toward the barn but knowing it would be foolish.
Lex looked around wildly. They couldn’t just charge in, there were far too many Aiacs. But there had to be something they could do.
The dark energy. Lex reached inward and found the thread of it, slipping it outward from the cube he’d formed it into. He felt it mold to his grasp, surrendering to his touch. He opened his eyes, focused on the wrasseks, and pulled the darkness slowly outward.
The wrasseks gave a small chorus of shrieks and spun their heads toward the house where Lex stood. Lex pulled harder, but his head was beginning to swim. He hadn’t accounted for the sheer force of the darkness among them, all together. He could feel it everywhere – from the wrasseks over the barn, the Aiacs in front of it, even from up in the sky and outside the gates. The city seemed to be drowning in it. If he pulled that much energy in, it would crush him – or worse, explode him, and everyone around him, including Lytira and Amelia, injured and asleep above them. How far would the explosion reach? To the Sephram outside? To the children? The wrasseks hissed and turned their focus back to the barn as Lex released his hold on the darkness. He would have to think of something else.
The roof of the barn gave way and the wrasseks tossed it aside. The children were exposed, caged prey for the taking. The king spun and barreled through the barn doors, leading the Sephram inside to protect the children. The Aiacs moved in front of the barn doors, blocking the king and the other Sephram inside.
But the wrasseks did nothing. They simply hovered above the barn, staring down into it.
Lex and Acarius could see the adult Sephram cornered just inside the doorway, making a final stand between the Aiacs outside and the children within, with the sky above them completely open to the wrasseks’ attack.
Then the screaming started again, this time with a different tone.
Lex expected to see the Sephram leap into action to fight off whatever it was – another Aiac turned among them? A wrassek dropped down unseen? Something else entirely? – but none of them moved. They were staring inward at something, in shock.
“What’s happening?” Lex asked.
“I don’t know,” Acarius answered, shaking his head wildly. “I don’t know.”
“The children,” a voice behind them gasped. “They’re – turning. I saw it from the window.”
Lex and Acarius spun around.
“Lytira!” Acarius shouted. He reached to embrace her, then noticed the pain she seemed to be in and pulled back. “Are you okay? You should be resting!”
“The children – are – turning!” she gasped again. “We have to help them.”
She moved for the door.
“What?” Acarius said. “No, that’s impossible. They can’t even shift yet, they – wait. Unless the Aiacs don’t feed off of the shift. Maybe it’s something in the blood. But… oh, Worldforce rescue us, we cannot slaughter children,” he said. “No wonder the others aren’t moving.”
“Only a couple of the children turned so far,” Lytira said, “and my father’s lions pinned them to the ground but did not harm them. But they cannot hold them indefinitely, and if some can turn, so can the rest. They will have to kill them. The children will slaughter them all, if they don’t. Though perhaps their parents would prefer that, to killing their own offspring.” She leaned against the doorframe, breathing heavily from her brief speech. She seemed resolved, but her voice had betrayed her sadness.
It was a devastating situation, but Lex was focused on something else at the moment. “They took the roof off,” he said, staring at the barn.
“Yes, we all saw that,” Acarius said, turning to him with a confused look.
“No, I mean – I thought it was to get the children, but… they’re not attacking. What if it was for a different reason?”
“I don’t follow,” Lytira said.
“What if Malleck has to see them to turn them? It would make sense, right? Don’t magicians – people of power, whatever you call it here – don’t they usually have to see their target to use magic on them?”
“Not always,” Lytira said, “but… you could be right. It would explain why the wrasseks are just hovering there. They’re ensuring a clear line of sight for him.”
“And why no one was able to spot him in the attacking forces,” Acarius said, his eyes going wide. “He’s not down there. He’s up in the trees.”
Lytira raced outside, wincing from pain, and planted herself in the middle of the courtyard.
Acarius gaped for a moment before racing to her side. “Are you crazy?” he hissed. “We’re completely exposed!”
“I think that’s her point,” Lex said, moving to Lytira’s other side.
Lytira took a shaky breath, then stretched her spine tall and assumed the regal posture Lex was used to seeing her carry. “Sephram!” she called out. “To me!”
The Aiacs spun toward her, seeming surprised, then part of them broke off in her direction. From inside the barn, the king’s large lion eyes peered outward, studying the scene. Then something in them seemed to sharpen, as though understanding Lytira was trying to work a plan. He let out a low rumble and his lions backed off the Aiac-children they’d pinned, letting them up.
He turned back toward the courtyard, watching Lytira.
Lytira flicked one hand to the left, so quickly Lex wouldn’t have noticed it had he not been standing on that side of her.
Whatever the signal meant, the king had seen it. He shifted toward the doorway, and his pride fell in behind him. The Aiacs still facing the barn tensed, preparing to fight.
The few guards who were still in Sephram form inside the barn huddled all the children together in a group, protecting them.
Above the barn the wrasseks fidgeted in the air, as though uncertain what to do.
Lytira gave a small nod, and at her signal, the king and his pride leapt forward, tearing apart the Aiacs in front of them, a smaller group now that some had moved toward Lytira. The Aiacs which had moved toward Lytira spun back toward the barn.
“Run for the houses!” Lytira screamed. “Get inside!”
Sephram-animals sped in all directions through the courtyard, forming a protective circle around the guards and children as they dashed for cover. The animals abandoned all attempt to fight the Aiacs in favor of their princess’s command and getting the children to safety. The Aiacs, slow to realize what was happening, were a few steps behind but when they began to catch up to the children, the king’s lions peeled off from the group to take the Aiacs down.
There were still too many Aiacs, but the houses were within a few paces of the barn and with a quick dash outward, soon all the children were inside the nearest couple of houses, with the Sephram animals shielding the doors. “Get inside, too!” Lytira yelled, and the adults shifted backward, melting into their Sephram forms as they huddled into the houses alongside the children.
Only the king remained, standing in lion form like a sentry under an overhang between the two houses which hid his remaining people.
Now that the courtyard was clear of all but Aiacs – other than Lytira and her friends – the archers still atop the wall let loose their arrows, picking off as many Aiacs as they could. But not for long. Wrasseks from beyond the walls swooped up, pulling the archers over the ledge and down into the waiting army outside. At the same time, the remaining Aiacs in the courtyard suddenly took flight, disappearing over the walls o
f the city. The haunting yell of the last archer to fall hung in the air as the rest of the city fell silent.
Then the king began to shift.
Lex watched in awe as the massive lion shrank back into a still-massive but slightly smaller man, and a guard from inside the house rushed out, handing the king a blanket to wrap around himself before darting back inside.
“My brave Lytira,” the king said, moving toward the courtyard… and out of the cover of the houses.
“Father, no!” Lytira yelled.
It was too late. The king began to shift before them yet again, his dark skin lightening to a pallid grey. “I – am – so sorry,” he moaned, then let out an inhuman howl as the change took him, leaving the smirking face of an Aiac in its place.
“No!” Lytira yelled. She started to leap toward the creature, but Acarius grabbed her arm.
“No, Lyt, please, you’re still hurt,” he said, pulling her back.
The Aiac moved toward them, grinning, its human form shifting into creature form as it neared them, wings outspread.
“No, let me,” Lex said. He closed his eyes and reached inside to the small thread of darkness which had called to him since the fighting began, and eased it from its prison again.
The darkness whispered through him, cool and smooth. He tightened his mind around it and opened his eyes, focusing on the Aiac. He could do it. He wanted to. With just one Aiac, he could focus it and control how much darkness he took in. But – this was their king. What if the people saw this as a betrayal, for him to kill it? What if Lytira did? Lex pulled at the darkness and the creature howled and stopped, turning its cold eyes on him. Lex had it – it would only take a tug… He hesitated, ready but uncertain.
The Edge of Nothing_The Lex Chronicles_Book 1 Page 29